Vessel sink vanities:
height and size.

Add the bowl’s height to the vanity’s. Most vessel bowls stand about 5–6″ above the counter (a low, wide one can be as little as 3″: check yours), so our 27″ standard height puts the rim at about 32–33″, where the top of a standard bathroom vanity would be.

The National Kitchen & Bath Association puts a sink anywhere from 32″ to 43″ high, to fit the people who use it, so ours sits at the low end of that range. Sink makers’ guides put a comfortable rim for most adults at about 34–36″.

So it comes down to who uses it. A household of taller adults may want the rim 2–4″ higher: a 29–31″ vanity under a 5″ bowl puts it at about 34–36″. Ask us for a taller vanity: any other size is built to order and quoted free. A taller bowl raises the rim too.

In a children’s bath or an accessible one, keep the rim at 34″ or lower: the accessibility standard (ICC A117.1) caps an accessible sink at 34″, measured to the rim.

Two things set a vessel sink vanity apart from one made for a sink top:

• —A lower cabinet: ours is 27″ tall, where our vanity base, made for a sink top, is 32″.
• —A solid top to set the bowl on and drill through: ours is planked pine and comes undrilled.

Like our vanity base, its back is open between two rails, so the supply lines and the drain come up through it.

And because the bowl sits on the wood, the top needs a water-resistant finish. Our build guide seals every face of it, the underside and the cutouts included. More on that in how a pine vanity is sealed.

Start from the top: the bowl sits on it with room for the faucet. Ours is the size’s full width and 18″ deep at every width, ½″ past the cabinet at the front and sides and flush at the wall, so the depth is what limits the bowl:

Where those numbers come from: sink makers ask for at least 1″ between the wall, a deck-mount faucet and the bowl (Kohler), and a single-hole vessel faucet’s base is about 2″ across. So a faucet behind the bowl takes about 4″ of the top: 1″ to the wall, 2″ of faucet, 1″ to the bowl. Leave about 1″ at the front, and an 18″ top has roughly 12–13″ left for the bowl, front to back. A typical round vessel bowl is about 16″ across, so on our top it wants a wall-mount faucet, which lets the bowl sit about 1″ from the wall. Across the width, every size clears a 16″ bowl.

Where it sits: centered side to side, with the extra room at the back for a deck-mount faucet. Ideally there’s about as much room in front as at the sides, but on an 18″-deep top the depth is what’s tight, so the sides get more.

Check your sink’s drain size and your faucet’s instructions for the holes to cut. Not sure? Send us the sink and faucet you have in mind, and we’ll tell you: we reply usually within an hour or two, always within 24 hours.

A standard bathroom faucet is usually too short to reach over a vessel bowl’s rim, so a vessel sink generally takes one of two kinds:

• —A tall deck-mount faucet, often sold as a vessel faucet: it goes through the top, beside or behind the bowl.
• —A wall-mount faucet: its plumbing goes in the wall behind the vanity, so plan it before the wall is closed.

Which kind? To us, a tall faucet standing on the planked top looks great, and it goes in through one hole in the top, with no work in the wall. A wall-mount faucet is less common, so it makes the vanity stand out; it also leaves the top clear, so there’s nothing to clean around and the bowl can sit closer to the wall. But it needs a valve set in the wall, on blocking at the right height for your rim, so it’s best done during a remodel or while the wall is open, by a plumber.

Height: tall vessel faucets stand about 11½–14½″ overall. The spout has to clear the rim by at least 1″ (the air gap the plumbing standard ASME A112.1.2 asks for, as the sink makers’ sheets say); about 3–4″ above the rim is a comfortable aim, since a spout set much higher splashes more.

Reach: the sink and faucet makers say to choose a spout that sends the water to the middle of the bowl, near the drain. The faucet’s spec sheet gives its reach; check it against where the bowl will sit.

Have the sink and faucet in hand before you drill the top, or at least their templates and instructions: the holes go where they say.

Drilling: our top is ¾″ thick, well within what vessel faucets and drains are made for (one common vessel faucet takes a counter up to 2½″ thick), but check your own faucet’s and drain’s instructions. Each hole’s cut edge is end grain, so seal it: the USDA’s Wood Handbook notes that a finish keeps moisture out only where the end grain is sealed too. Then set the bowl and its drain on a bead of silicone, as the sink maker’s instructions say.